Oh, Vanessa, I'm so glad to see your words out in the world like this! Knowing how much they have mattered to me and others in the small spaces of gathering that you've invited us into, knowing how you have been struggling to bring them to the point where they could be shared, their absence in the wider world has felt at times like a wound. But here we are, and I can't wait – I cannot wait! – to witness the fruits you will be sharing from your basket. You bring something to the table that no one else could bring.
And as if to underline this, at the moment this first post of yours dropped on Substack, here's what was playing on the stereo here in the shoe shop, Sara Parkman's Kyrie / Sjung, Syster Sjung:
And it was – of course! – Lydia who introduced me to that song, whose quivering, resonant Depths couldn't be a truer accompaniment to your post. So very glad to be a part of this weave and grateful for your weaving.
Thank you Dougald. And for so kindly and determinedly cheering me on through the last years of relative (painful) silence. It has indeed been a wound. A personal one, but also a collective one...that runs through the foundations of the tradition I write from...so perhaps I can now speak from that experience in a way that is healing not just for me, but for others too. And that song!!!
Yours and Anna's work has been so resonant for me...that crazy-beautiful-crazy gathering by the toxic lake in Sweden (!) helped me to see and get more of a feel for the edge I'd found. To witness how generative that meeting point can be when we choose to humble ourselves. Thank you. x
I tremble with excitement. That is this body's response to the redemption for which you plead. I can feel it in my heart and throat. Thank you for taking a chance on us to carry, faithfully, the story-seeds you have been tending.
What a tender response. Thank you Adam. And now I have arrived I will let myself read others writing again...and I very much look forward to properly encountering yours.
Dear Vanessa, I found you through Dougald Hine’s link on Substack. As a lifelong boundary dweller I’m fascinated by your introduction. It puts words to so many threads that I’ve been working on. Thank you
Oh man, what a good question. I will ponder. For starters, the modes I meant above were move-settle-move-setlle. Maybe I'll have a better idea of what that means in a little while.
I am delighted to have stumbled across this exciting intro post, and very much looking forward to your essays! So many of the people whose work you mention have been for me, too, wild guides around the edges. I’ve often felt like I have one foot ‘in religion’ and one foot outside, and although this isn’t always comfortable, there’s no other place I can be with integrity.
Thanks Erin! I love all of that. And yes, I relate to that posture. The skeptic (in it's best sense). I'm going to message you because I think I know who you are...and have heard very lovely things about you over the years.
Great to find you on here Vanessa, and glorious to dive into your footnote-rich introductory post. It's a lovely thing that promises much earthy exploration and breathtaking beauty along the wild way. Looking forward to more.
PS are you considering voice recording your essays? There are many days I find that a far more accessible option than reading on a screen, so I make a point of saying this to everyone I find on here. However, I'm keenly aware it's yet another piece of work in a largely unremunerated space!
Hi dear Jez! Thank you for the encouragement. And yes, I decided not to record audio for this one, just because the spacing of it and the images felt important, and I couldn't replicate them in my voice...but for my essays I will do just that. We were talking about you today...I will be in touch. It's so lovely to hear from you hear. x
Thanks Vanessa - I shall look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for clarifying about the audio - I think your instinct was right with this one, particularly regarding the images. It's the part I sometimes miss when listening to recordings, especially as I'm usually lying on the floor doing stretches or something while I listen. But thanks in advance for future voice recordings 💚
Vanessa, I have many, many feelings in response to the reading of this inaugural piece—but most of all gratitude. Gratitude with a welling of tears. A wilderness feast? What an invitation. Sending deeply appreciative anticipation from one stranger to another. x
What a beautiful response - thank you for sharing that Jan. The feast of John the Baptist...is on my birth date...or rather the other way around...so I try and host a literal wilderness feast each year. And I love the idea that you might feel invited to that here. Thank you for sharing.
I'm excited to have stumbled across you due to a random substack note. I'm in the US, but sometimes work in Sussex so am hoping we might get a chance to collaborate. I write The Wisdom Underground here on Substack and have been republishing my book The Ecology of Care here as well. I'm also a very down-to-earth
-and
-body practicing Christian or whatever we are going to call that. And love to draw... and plunge into cold rivers.
This is so great to read. Thank you for being in touch. Yes, please let me know when you are next heading to Sussex. I will seek out your writing. It sounds wonder-full!
How lovely to receive this Deborah. Thank you. Yes, I can relate to a lot of what you write. And yes, it seems to be a time of re-enchantment in so many different ways. I love that I get to dig deeper for that in the Jesus traditions and am glad to know that you and others are doing the same. I will seek out your writing and also look forward to meeting whenever we do. So much more I could say but I'll let my essays do the talking! Let's keep in touch and I really appreciate your taking the time to welcome me here.
Oh, Vanessa, I'm so glad to see your words out in the world like this! Knowing how much they have mattered to me and others in the small spaces of gathering that you've invited us into, knowing how you have been struggling to bring them to the point where they could be shared, their absence in the wider world has felt at times like a wound. But here we are, and I can't wait – I cannot wait! – to witness the fruits you will be sharing from your basket. You bring something to the table that no one else could bring.
And as if to underline this, at the moment this first post of yours dropped on Substack, here's what was playing on the stereo here in the shoe shop, Sara Parkman's Kyrie / Sjung, Syster Sjung:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZP-xD2wdu0
"Skriv in, skriv om, håll ut
Skriv av, skriv in, lägg till
Sjung, syster sjung
Skrik, syster skrik
Hugg in i ditt namn i tiden
Sjung mig in i oss"
"Write, rewrite, hold on
Write off, write in, add more
Sing, sister, sing
Cry out, sister, cry out
Carve your name into the times
Sing me into us"
And it was – of course! – Lydia who introduced me to that song, whose quivering, resonant Depths couldn't be a truer accompaniment to your post. So very glad to be a part of this weave and grateful for your weaving.
Well. Reading that has made me cry.
Thank you Dougald. And for so kindly and determinedly cheering me on through the last years of relative (painful) silence. It has indeed been a wound. A personal one, but also a collective one...that runs through the foundations of the tradition I write from...so perhaps I can now speak from that experience in a way that is healing not just for me, but for others too. And that song!!!
Yours and Anna's work has been so resonant for me...that crazy-beautiful-crazy gathering by the toxic lake in Sweden (!) helped me to see and get more of a feel for the edge I'd found. To witness how generative that meeting point can be when we choose to humble ourselves. Thank you. x
This is so great. What a scene! x
I tremble with excitement. That is this body's response to the redemption for which you plead. I can feel it in my heart and throat. Thank you for taking a chance on us to carry, faithfully, the story-seeds you have been tending.
What a tender response. Thank you Adam. And now I have arrived I will let myself read others writing again...and I very much look forward to properly encountering yours.
So flipping happy to have you here, sister!
What a start...
Thank you for forcing me out...! In the best of womanly ways. x
“something more feral is happening” 😍
Hello Will! How did you manage to find me here? I haven't alerted many to its existence yet. Lovely to see that smiling face. xxx
Dear Vanessa, I found you through Dougald Hine’s link on Substack. As a lifelong boundary dweller I’m fascinated by your introduction. It puts words to so many threads that I’ve been working on. Thank you
Terri
Lovely to read this Terri. Thank you. I like the idea of you being a lifelong boundary dweller.
This sounds very moving. And settling. It sounds like a good rhythm between both modes.
Hi Abbey, thanks for this. I wonder what the rhythm you are hearing sounds like? What are those modes?
So, I reread this and what I feel is a pulse. Listening, speaking, listening.
“I won’t be trying to convince anyone of anything. I just create spaces for encounter.”
You managed to put words around what I really hope my writing and yours and others’ can do in the world.
I love that it’s from the body. How could it be otherwise? And yet so much is brain on a stick. We are hungry for more.
I look forward to following you.
I love this...listening...speaking...listening...and then more listening! Thank you for the insight and encouragement Abbey. Much appreciated.
Oh man, what a good question. I will ponder. For starters, the modes I meant above were move-settle-move-setlle. Maybe I'll have a better idea of what that means in a little while.
I am delighted to have stumbled across this exciting intro post, and very much looking forward to your essays! So many of the people whose work you mention have been for me, too, wild guides around the edges. I’ve often felt like I have one foot ‘in religion’ and one foot outside, and although this isn’t always comfortable, there’s no other place I can be with integrity.
Waving a hello from London 👋🏼
Thanks Erin! I love all of that. And yes, I relate to that posture. The skeptic (in it's best sense). I'm going to message you because I think I know who you are...and have heard very lovely things about you over the years.
Great to find you on here Vanessa, and glorious to dive into your footnote-rich introductory post. It's a lovely thing that promises much earthy exploration and breathtaking beauty along the wild way. Looking forward to more.
PS are you considering voice recording your essays? There are many days I find that a far more accessible option than reading on a screen, so I make a point of saying this to everyone I find on here. However, I'm keenly aware it's yet another piece of work in a largely unremunerated space!
Hi dear Jez! Thank you for the encouragement. And yes, I decided not to record audio for this one, just because the spacing of it and the images felt important, and I couldn't replicate them in my voice...but for my essays I will do just that. We were talking about you today...I will be in touch. It's so lovely to hear from you hear. x
Thanks Vanessa - I shall look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for clarifying about the audio - I think your instinct was right with this one, particularly regarding the images. It's the part I sometimes miss when listening to recordings, especially as I'm usually lying on the floor doing stretches or something while I listen. But thanks in advance for future voice recordings 💚
That is the image I shall now have in mind when I record them. 😇
I can only apologise... 😵💫
Vanessa, I have many, many feelings in response to the reading of this inaugural piece—but most of all gratitude. Gratitude with a welling of tears. A wilderness feast? What an invitation. Sending deeply appreciative anticipation from one stranger to another. x
What a beautiful response - thank you for sharing that Jan. The feast of John the Baptist...is on my birth date...or rather the other way around...so I try and host a literal wilderness feast each year. And I love the idea that you might feel invited to that here. Thank you for sharing.
(and if you felt to share more about why the piece should move you so please feel free to message me. I would be so interested to hear)
What a lovely tradition to keep, and in such a way! I will send a message your way shortly.
I'm excited to have stumbled across you due to a random substack note. I'm in the US, but sometimes work in Sussex so am hoping we might get a chance to collaborate. I write The Wisdom Underground here on Substack and have been republishing my book The Ecology of Care here as well. I'm also a very down-to-earth
-and
-body practicing Christian or whatever we are going to call that. And love to draw... and plunge into cold rivers.
This is so great to read. Thank you for being in touch. Yes, please let me know when you are next heading to Sussex. I will seek out your writing. It sounds wonder-full!
I am here for this 🙌🏽 Vai fundo amiga!
I am so delighted with this 🙌🏻
How lovely to receive this Deborah. Thank you. Yes, I can relate to a lot of what you write. And yes, it seems to be a time of re-enchantment in so many different ways. I love that I get to dig deeper for that in the Jesus traditions and am glad to know that you and others are doing the same. I will seek out your writing and also look forward to meeting whenever we do. So much more I could say but I'll let my essays do the talking! Let's keep in touch and I really appreciate your taking the time to welcome me here.